Massacres

CENTENNIAL, Colo. - The University of Colorado-Denver stood firm Friday in saying it never barred James E. Holmes from campus, despite newly released court documents that indicate the suspect in the Aurora movie massacre had his student ID card deactivated after he alarmed a school psychiatrist. Dr. Lynne Fenton told campus police officer Lynn Whitten on June 12 - more than a month before the July 20 rampage that killed 12 and injured 70 - that Holmes had "homicidal thoughts" and might be a danger to the public.

Lawmakers in Connecticut, the site of the Dec. 14 massacre that renewed a national debate over gun control, passed a bipartisan measure that increases background checks for buyers and bans the sale of semiautomatic rifles like the one used in Newtown's Sandy Hook Elementary School. The Senate passed the bill 26-10 yesterday, and the House of Representatives approved it 105-44 in Hartford. The legislature is controlled by Democrats, and Democratic Governor Dan Malloy, 57, has said he will sign the measure.

CENTENNIAL, Colo. - When the district attorney announced Monday that the suspect in the Aurora theater massacre could face the death penalty, one spectator pumped his fist in triumph. Others held their heads in their hands. George Brauchler, elected district attorney for Colorado's 18th Judicial District in November, said he had wrestled with the decision for months. "It is my determination and my intention that in this case, for James Eagan Holmes, justice is death," Brauchler said quietly.

CENTENNIAL, Colo. - Prosecutors are expected to announce Monday whether they will seek the death penalty in the Aurora movie theater massacre - a decision that could affect not only the defendant, James E. Holmes, but also capital punishment in Colorado. As the critical decision loomed, the defense and prosecution were scrambling to win the upper hand - in the world of public opinion, if not the courtroom - in an escalating war of words. Holmes, 25, a former neuroscience student, is accused of opening fire in a packed premiere showing of "The Dark Knight Rises" on July 20, killing 12 people and injuring about 70 others.

Adam Lanza, the gunman who attacked a Connecticut elementary school, killing 20 children and six adults, had an arsenal of guns, more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition and even samurai swords, knives and a bayonet, according to search warrants released on Thursday. The warrants outlined what police found in Lanza's home and car during official searches of the Newton, Conn., home Lanza shared with his mother, who he killed before the Dec. 14 attack on Sandy Hook Elementary School.

CENTENNIAL, Colo. - James E. Holmes, accused of unleashing the Aurora movie theater massacre in July, has offered to plead guilty to killing 12 people and injuring 70 if prosecutors do not seek the death penalty. In an unusual court filing, defense lawyers revealed Wednesday that they had made the standing offer weeks ago for Holmes to serve life in prison without possibility of parole for the July 20 mass shooting. So far the prosecution has declined the offer, the document said.

A student at the University of Central Florida may have aborted his plan to massacre fellow students at his dorm and decided instead to kill himself, officials said Monday. Authorities identified the dead man as James Oliver Seevakumara, 30, of Lake Mary, Fla., who was found shot in the head in his bedroom of a four-bedroom suite in the Tower 1 residence hall. He had a .45-caliber handgun, a .22-caliber tactical rifle and a backpack containing four improvised explosive devices, officials said.

JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. - Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales , accused of killing 16 villagers and wounding six more in Afghanistan , will undergo a government sanity review this weekend to determine his mental state, his attorneys said. Bales faces a military court-martial with the possibility of receiving the death penalty. His attorneys had previously opposed a sanity review, saying that the process was too favorable to military prosecutors, who also have opposed Bales' hopes for an insanity plea.

FT. HOOD, Texas - Capital murder trials are rare in the military's criminal justice system, but they are familiar territory for the judge who will handle the trial of Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the former Army psychiatrist charged with killing 13 people and wounding 32 in a shooting rampage at this base in central Texas. The judge is Col. Tara Abbey Osborn, and she once served at Ft. Hood, the sprawling facility known as "the Great Place. " Osborn has presided over "numerous serious felony trials, one capital trial and other non-capital homicide trials," a base spokesman said.

CENTENNIAL, Colo. - A visibly annoyed judge ordered a not guilty plea for James E. Holmes, who is charged with the deadly Aurora, Colo., movie theater shooting, after his defense said they were not ready to enter a plea. Wearing shackles and prison togs, Holmes was impassive in the Arapahoe County Court as he was arraigned on 166 criminal counts in connection with the shooting on July 20. The former neuroscience doctoral student at the University of Colorado-Denver is accused of opening fire in a packed movie theater during a midnight showing of “The Dark Knight Rises,” killing 12 and wounding about 70. Prosecutors said they will announce on April 1 whether they will seek the death penalty.